Friday, December 5, 2014

Located on the
border of Andhra Pradesh, nearer
Srikakulam is Ganjam District that came
into existence in 1936. The district is
named after the old township and European fort of Ganjam situated on the
northern bank of river Rushikulya which was the head quarter of the
District. Thousands of miles away is a
similar sounding – ‘Gangnam District’ in
Seoul, South Korea. Gangnam literally means "South of the (Han)
River".

In my website, I
have a statcounter through which I get details of no. of visitors – hourly as
also total; popular pages, came from,
keyword analysis, search engines, visitor paths, visit lengths, recent page
load activity, recent visitor map; Country/State/City/ISP details and the like.
When a visitor visits my webpage with the installed HTML and Javascript
code, their anonymous details are sent to StatCounter to be recorded. Obviously, You Tube and all other famous sites
also have such stat-counters powered by various sites. This post is about how
You Tube is made to change their counting tool from a 32 bit integer to 64 bit
integer………… not due to any technology – but due to
sheer numbers – a particular video being watched by millions forching the
change. The 32-bit integer can take care up to maximum of 2,147,483,647 (two billion one hundred
forty-seven million four hundred eighty-three thousand six hundred forty-seven)

–
while the 64 bit integer can support up to : (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)!

The reason is ‘Gangnam style’ video of South Korean singer Psy's Gangnam Style
exceeded YouTube's view limit, prompting the site to upgrade its counter. Psy's
song, reportedly refers to an upmarket neighbourhood in Seoul; the video pokes
fun at the consumerism of Gangnam, an affluent suburb of the South Korean
capital Seoul. In it, the portly Psy
dances as though he is trotting on a horse, holding the reins and spinning a
lasso in a manner that has sparked a global dance craze. The dance has sparked numerous copycat
versions, being performed by a diverse fan-base.

The song and its
accompanying music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular
culture since then. It has already become an international sensation and the present
news only adds to its popularity. "Gangnam Style" is the 18th K-pop single by the South Korean
musicianPsy. The song was released in July 2012 as the lead single of his sixth
studio album Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1, and debuted at number one on South
Korea's Gaon Chart. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the
firstYouTube video to reach one billion views.
Apart from being so popular, it is also a source of parodies and
reaction videos by many different individuals, groups and organizations.

To Cricket lovers,
it was portrayed by Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy and other West Indian Cricketers
in many of their matches, especially after their title win in T20 WC in Sri
Lanka. The team burst into happiness - Pollard, Gayle, Russel, Sammy, Bravos, Charles, Ramdin and more were dancing in the outfield.

Now YouTube
states that this video - its most watched ever - has been viewed more than
2,147,483,647 times ~ and to further keep track of new viewers, they have moved
to 64 bit integer which will support up to nine quintillion. Can you imagine – what it is ……..

For us : 1 lakh is
6 digits :(1,00,000) and 1 Crore is 8 digits (1,00,00,000) and how do you say :
“ 9,223,372,036,854,775,808? ” (19 digits) – it is : Nine quintillion, two hundred and
twenty-three quadrillion, three hundred and seventy-two trillion, thirty-six
billion, eight hundred and fifty-four million, seven hundred and seventy-five
thousand, eight hundred and eight.

On 1 December, You
Tube posted a statement saying: "We
never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit
integer... but that was before we met Psy."………….. really interesting and
have you watched Psy performing ‘Gangnam style” ??